A Worthwhile Journey
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: For Duchess, finding Thomas made the entire perilous journey worthwhile. Het.


Title: "A Worthwhile Journey"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: G  
Summary: For Duchess, finding Thomas made the entire perilous journey worthwhile.  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.

Duchess purred as her human mother cuddled her. Madame had been covering her in hugs and kisses for hours. Her kittens had been receiving the same loving attention until they'd tired of Madame's smooching, wriggled free, and ran for cover. Duchess was rather pleased with the attention, however, for she'd missed Madame as much as the old woman had missed her.

Still, her lips were rather sticky from her makeup, and even Duchess eventually broke her regal silence and meowed her protest. Madame laughed. "Oh, okay, my darling," she relented at last. "I admit perhaps I did get a bit carried away, but I've missed you so! If only I'd known what kind of a criminal Edgar was!"

Duchess meowed, telling her she couldn't have known, but Madame shook her head and continued on, "I should have. I'm so sorry I didn't, my dear! Oh, the horrors you must have suffered!"

Duchess shivered in her best friend's caring arms as she remembered that first horrible night alone with her babies in the wilds, dark, and storm. Her shivers increased as she thought of being soaked and seeing her baby girl almost drown. It was that thought, however, as she remembered what had happened next that caused Duchess' shivers to cease and warmed her heart again.

Her blue eyes widened. Suddenly perplexed, she mewed. She looked down to the floor into two, big, and green eyes that gazed back as steadily and faithfully as he had proven to be to her and her babies throughout all the perils of their journey. Duchess meowed again and scrambled gently against Madame, requesting to be let down.

Madame released her. Duchess sprang to the floor and pranced purposefully over to Thomas. She gazed deeply into his eyes for a moment before delicately and sweetly touching her nose to his.

Thomas almost blushed, and then the wild alley cat did blush as Madame laughed and clapped her hands in glee. "I understand, my sweet," she crooned. "No matter how perilous the journey, regardless of all your undoubtedly frighteningly close calls, it was all made worth it by your discovery of love, and you'd never have it not have happened because it was through your adventure, horrible though it was, that you found the love of your life!"

Duchess meowed in agreement. She held her head high and whisked her fluffy, white tail to show her pride in Thomas, having found him, and her beloved, cherished Madame for understanding her so well. Madame laughed again, and the sound was like music. "I must agree, sweetheart, that finding such a rare gem, a male so regal, brave, and gallant with whom to spend your life is surely worth any hardship!"

Despite the deep blush burning his furry, orange cheeks, Thomas held his head doubly high in response to the woman's praise. He was going to like this human. "Welcome again to the family, Mister O'Malley." Thomas barely had the time to do a double take in shock that Madame somehow understood Duchess so well that she knew his name before Duchess kissed him again in front of Madame. Madame oohed and awed, sounds that Thomas usually found disgusting, but he missed them entirely as he forgot everything in his beloved Duchess' sweet and wonderful kiss!

**The End**


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